A Donor's a Donor

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari is a generous guy. Since 2002, he's given $15,250 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. And yesterday he was charged with funding a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. In response, the NRCC has cautioned people not to rush to judgement on Alishtari, and moreover has not disclosed what it intends to do with the money it received from Alishtari. Good to be a big donor, huh?

Alishtari, occasionally operating under an alias and using a variety of addresses, has donated to the NRCC since 2002, for which he's received a series of honors and accolades (one of which looks to have been cooked up by ex-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) from Republican leaders.

Among these honors and accolades appears to be a new and overwhelming embrace of due process of law for suspected terrorists and terrorist financiers by Republican leaders. At a time when issues of national security and terrorism prevention are at the forefront of the nation's consciousness, for the NRCC to not act with haste to rid their coffers of money from an alleged aid to terrorists is an outrageous example of both the hunger for campaign cash that permeates our electoral process, and the web of exclusivity that surrounds our elected officials and their most prized donors. Money is money after all- and we've got elections coming up.